Opinion

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  3 Qs With Jodi | What Does Israel’s Political Stalemate Really Mean?

  Whenever people ask how long I was in Jerusalem as the bureau chief of The New York Times, I answer both in years and in stories. That is, almost four years — or, two wars in Gaza and two Israeli elections. My successor has certainly got me beat: two Israeli elections in six months, and…

  By Jodi Rudoren

  3 min read
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  Opinion

  Thank You, Lt. Col. Vindman, For Reminding Us Who We Are

  Watching the impeachment hearings, I was transported back to September 1972 when I briefly encountered — in a very personal fashion — the face of the KGB. A frightening moment, it offered me a glimpse of what an antisemitic authoritarian government is capable of. I had arrived in Moscow with a friend Erev Rosh Hashana…

  By Deborah E. Lipstadt Nov 20, 2019 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  The Devastating Irony Of The Impeachment Hearings For Russian Jews

  Two children of Jewish refugees testified in the Trump impeachment hearings in Washington this week. Today, Ambassador Gordon Sondland invoked his immigrant background in the opening statement of his testimony. “My parents fled Europe during the Holocaust,” he testified. “Escaping the atrocities of that time, my parents left Germany for Uruguay… Like so many immigrants,…

  By Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt Nov 20, 2019 | 3 min read

Columnists View All

• Jodi Rudoren This is my last column as editor of the Forward

  

• Jay Michaelson American Jews were played — now what?

  

• Rob Eshman There’s a shocking new report on civilian deaths in Gaza. If only it were accurate.

  

• Nora Berman Is Netflix’s new show the most Jewish cartoon ever?

  

• Dan Perry Israel is not deliberately killing journalists in Gaza. But it does bear responsibility for their deaths

  

• Emily Tamkin Trump’s attack on George Soros is ludicrous. It also endangers Jews (and everyone else)

  

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  Opinion

  The Problem With Settlements Is Not That They Are Illegal. It’s That They Are Immoral

  Yesterday the Trump administration said Israeli settlements in the West Bank don’t violate international law. That’s absurd. Among international lawyers, the consensus that settlements are illegal rivals the consensus among international scientists that humans contribute to climate change. As UCLA’s Dov Waxman has pointed out, the legal advisor to Israel’s own foreign ministry admitted that…

  By Peter Beinart Nov 19, 2019 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Vassar Is Actually Handling Anti-Zionist Protests Really Well. I Should Know – They Protested Us

  This is one of a number of responses to what happened at Vassar when an Israeli speaker, Hen Mazzig, was protested last week. In 2019, protests against pro-Israel and Jewish speakers are all too common. The topic is a heated one, and speakers getting protested has become almost a daily social media frenzy. These episodes…

  By Jacob Miller Nov 19, 2019 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Here’s Why We Protested Hen Mazzig At Vassar

  This is one of a number of responses to what happened at Vasser when an Israeli speaker, Hen Mazzig, was protested last week. On Thursday November 14, at 5 p.m., around 25 members of Vassar’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter along with other students gathered on the third floor of Rockefeller Hall to voice…

  By Ezra Mead Nov 19, 2019 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  We’re Having the Wrong Debate about the West Bank

  It was a special treat, I remember: We would jump in the back seat of a car and hop over to Efrat on Saturday night. I was 17, and living for a year in Gush Etzion, the area just south east of Jerusalem that has been the scene of repeated violence. I remember the quiet…

  By Ari Hoffman Nov 19, 2019 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  The Two-State Solution Is Not A Gift To Us Palestinians. It’s The Only Way Israel Survives.

  On Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo unveiled a massive shift in U.S. foreign policy: The U.S. would no longer consider Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory illegal under international law. The devastating announcement, made at a press conference in Washington, threatens to undermine future hopes for peace or a two-state solution to the conflict. But…

  By Muhammad Shehada Nov 19, 2019 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  The Real Beneficiary Of US Recognition Of The Settlements Is Not Israel

  Most days, you could be forgiven for not paying attention to shifts in diplomatic policy stances. But on Monday afternoon, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced a policy change with potentially far reaching implications. He announced that “the establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not per se inconsistent with international law.”…

  By Alex Zeldin Nov 18, 2019 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Black People Are Very Forgiving. We Will Not Forgive Bloomberg.

  Black people maybe the most forgiving group in America. It’s why some relatives of the victims of the Emanuel A.M.E. Church shooting in Charleston, during which nine black people were gunned down by a young white supremacist, felt compelled to forgive Dylann Roof almost immediately. It’s why the younger brother of a black man, Botham…

  By Issac J. Bailey Nov 18, 2019 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  American Jewish Identity Is Now Expressed Through Opposing Israel – And Vice Versa

  I recently met with a young liberal Jewish activist — let’s call him Josh — at a hip Brooklyn coffee shop, where over $5 cups of cold brew filled mostly with ice, we discussed the revival of the Jewish left and the arc of Josh’s own Jewish identity. Now in his late twenties, Josh grew…

  By Tracy Frydberg Nov 18, 2019 | 4 min read